This how-to illustrates how EclipseLink can be extended to deliver all of its JPA functionality in a dynamic scenario where no Java class exists for the entity and optionally where no XML is provided. This allows the EclipseLink JPA solution to be used in more dynamic environments where either the mode is unknown at development time or the application is simply dynamic in nature.

This how-to illustrates how EclipseLink can be extended to deliver all of its JPA functionality in a dynamic scenario where no Java class exists for the entity and optionally where no XML is provided. This allows the EclipseLink JPA solution to be used in more dynamic environments where either the mode is unknown at development time or the application is simply dynamic in nature.

How to use Dynamic JPA persistence

This how-to illustrates how EclipseLink can be extended to deliver all of its JPA functionality in a dynamic scenario where no Java class exists for the entity and optionally where no XML is provided. This allows the EclipseLink JPA solution to be used in more dynamic environments where either the mode is unknown at development time or the application is simply dynamic in nature.

Dynamic Entity Extension

The extension to EclipseLink to enable dynamic entities and the associated helpers involves the following classes.

TBD

Example

The dynamic entity extension is currently illustrated through test cases in the example.

Creating and Entity on the Fly

In this example (

testing.PUWithoutXML#createSimpleDynamicEntity()

) an EntityManagerFactory is bootstrapped without a persistence.xml and then a dynamic entity type is defined. After this the dynamic entity can be used through standard JPA queries and transactions.

Try It Out

In the future a zip will be available download with setup and run instructions.

Outstanding Work

This how-to is based on an extension to EclipseLink JPA. The functionality needs to be consolidated into the project leveraging the existing dynamic support introduced in EclipseLink SDO.

TO DO:

Add support for using JPA ORM.XML and EclipseLink ORM.XML. At present the metadata processor always validates the existence of the field or standard get method on the class.

Consolidate the SDO approach for a base dynamic entity class with this one in the Foundation component

Minimize the introduction of yet another meta model. This will be done either through usage of the existing Descriptor/Mapping model or through some generalization of the SDO meta-model basics within Foundation.